Sacramento awards minuscule $1.4 Million for private wireless to close digital divide

A group of vendors has been working on a CBRS private wireless network for a school in an underprivileged area of Sacramento, California, for a couple of years. And as a result of their trial, the Sacramento City Council recently approved $1.4 million in funding to create a permanent private 5G network for the school and two public housing communities in the city. The vendors involved in the project include Athonet, Federated Wireless, Intel, JMA Wireless, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Megh Computing, and Future Technologies Venture. They joined forces to create a model for private CBRS networks, which they hope to scale statewide in California. According to a recent announcement from the Sacramento City Council, at full implementation, 751 residents between two communities — Marina Vista and Alder Grove — as well as Leataata Floyd Elementary School and Health Professional High School will have free broadband access for at least five years. Yet, $1.4 million for full implementation of this project isn’t a lot of money in the world of broadband projects. Federated Wireless and AWS declined to comment.